cult to the saints in the Yungas
 
 
 
Afrobolivians
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Remberto Reynal is the only one who has been able to give us a reference of our origins: "We came from Africa, they say from Congo, Senegal and Angola, but all of us here are Senegalese. Also, my father used to tell me that his grand-parents had worked at Cerro Rico, in Potosí, that’s the only version I got from my father".

Saya is the expression that retains part of our ancestral traditions that touch our deeply sensed African roots with the “genealogy of our cultural manifesta-tions”, it’s a feeling that describes the individual and collective lives of the black people.
 
Saya Drum


Name of the Group: Afrobolivians

Linguistic Family: Spanish

Location: Departament of La Paz, Nor Yungas and Sud Yungas  provinces,
at the municipalities of Chulumani, Coroico, Coripata, Chicaloma community, Mururrata, Tocaña, Coripata, Dorado, Chico Chijchipa, and Negrillani.

History: Afrobolivians were brought from África to work at the silver mines in Potosí, where they were subjected to inhumane treatment and suffered the cold Andean weather at over 4200 meters above sea level, conditions they were not used to. When mining declined, they migrated to the Yungas at La Paz where regional landlords exploited them as slaves in the coca farms. In August 2, 1953, Law N° 3464 delivered them from slavery. At that time they received the lands where they have lived and worked to the present.

Social Organization: Afrobolivian social organization is based on the nuclear family unit and is noted for the closeness of family ties, made tighter as a defensive reaction to racial discrimination. Socially restricted to an ethnic enclave, they nurtured the original cultural traits that distinguish them and that have been kept vibrantly alive to this date.

Cultural Heritage: Based on their African ancestry and on the legacy of their elders subject to slavery at Potosí, the strong ethnic identity of Afrobolivians also includes indigenous cultural traits that are a natural assimilation from the Aymara.
La Saya, a musical expression of their African roots, uses the rhythmic patterns played on drums and coupled in song, to convey the saga of the people, to celebrate or to mourn, as a medium for sharing and remembrance that also serves to enliven and assure the continuity of communal bonds.
Afrobolivian language, music and personal demeanor and character are a very special blend of African, Aymara and Creole mestizo cultural traits, resulting in a powerful sense of communal identity, uniquely its own.

Religion: Together with their Christian values, Afrobolivians keep traditions and rituals from the dark continent, particularly in Chicaloma and Mururata,  where ancestral African lore survives even when original names and terminologies may have been modified or entirely lost.

Lands: Most Afrobolivians live in major urban areas like La Paz and Santa Cruz but many still work communal farms on lands that once belonged to the coca barons. Very few have lands that are individually owned.

Habitat: They live in the Yungas of La Paz, 800 to 200 meters above sea level, where daytime temperature is over 17° C and annual precipitation is 2000 mm.

Economy: Although coca is the main crop in the Afrobolivian agricultural economy, they also grow coffee, plantain, yucca, citrus fruits and papaya for trade. Coffee, fruits and cereals are grown for family and community sustenance.

Source: http://www.amazonia.bo/mas_detalle_proi.php?id_contenido=1
 
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